Archie Lieberman Collection

Collection

Identifier: RG 1000.04

Staff Only

About the Collection

The Archie Lieberman Collection dates from 1950 to 2003 in 243.55 cubic feet (252 boxes). The Collection contains the work of Archie Lieberman, outlining his professional work for many decades as a photographer, author, and photojournalist. This collection includes job notebooks, photographic negatives, slides, prints, and contact proofs. Personal and business correspondence, academic activities, journals, and personal writings. The remainder of the collection contains major project materials, such as his Farm Boy work, and categories of materials such as correspondence, academic work, and exhibit information.

Dates

Majority of material found within 1950-2003

Creator

Lieberman, Archie (Person)

Terms of Access

The processed portions of the Archie Lieberman collection are available to all users. Any unprocessed items in the collection that are not in this current inventory will become available for all users once the Archivist has updated the collection’s description.

Terms of Use

Materials are the property of Columbia College Chicago. Intellectual property rights of work belong to the original creators. Materials within the collection that are published and copyrighted maintain their copyright protections and must be used according to United States Copyright Law. Use of this collection and its materials is understood to be primarily for research, teaching, and creative study; additional uses, such as publication, exhibition, or other appropriate purposes may be considered upon consultation with the Archivist.

Biography - Archie Lieberman

Archie Lieberman was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 17, 1926 and died in Galena, Illinois on March 13, 2008. He was educated at the Chicago Institute of Design (now Illinois Institute of Technology) where he studied with Alexander Archipenko, Buckminster Fuller, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Aaron Siskind, and he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. Lieberman worked as a photographer for magazines, advertising, and corporations working extensively for Look magazine between 1952 and 1972 and his photographs have also appeared in such magazines as Life, Time, Fortune, Collier's, Holiday, London Illustrated, and Paris-Match. In the 1960s, Lieberman taught Photography classes at Columbia College Chicago.

Lieberman was the author or photographer of more than twenty books. His photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Canada. He won numerous prizes and awards, including five from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the Friends of Literature Award (1974, for Farm Boy), the Society of Professional Journalists’ Peter Lisagor Award (1980 for “Final Verdict”, the Chicago Book Clinic Award and selection among the Best Fifty Books of 1965 (for The Israelis), and numerous awards from photographic, typographic, and graphic design professional associations.

Extent

243.55 Cubic Feet (118 record boxes, 13 document cases, 68 print boxes, 53 artifact boxes) : Forms of Material: black-and-white negatives; color negatives; contact sheets; Correspondence; Diaries; Interviews; Magazines (periodicals); Newspaper Clippings; personal papers; Photographs; proofs (prints by function); reports; Slides

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Introduction

Archie Lieberman (1926-2008), of Chicago, Illinois, was a photographer for magazines, advertising, and corporations, including Look magazine, Time, Life, and Collier's. The collection demonstrates Lieberman’s professional work for many decades as a photographer, author, and photojournalist.

Collection Arrangement

This collection has been arranged into seven series:

Series 1: Farm Boy/Neighbors, 1954-1994
Series 2: Project Work, 1950s-2000s
Series 3: Commercial Work, 1951-1971
Series 4: Prints/Contacts, 1965-2002
Series 5: Printed Materials, 1966-1996
Series 6: Correspondence & Academic Work, 1960-2003
Series 7: Negatives, 1950s-2000s

The majority of the collection is arranged around the job numbers assigned by Lieberman to each photographic session. These job numbers, recorded in annual journals, were meticulously kept by Lieberman and the negatives, proof sheets, photographs, and slides are generally arranged by this number. A small amount of material from his time at Black Star predated his numeric system and this material is arranged alphabetically by name or chronologically by date.

Requirements for Researcher’s Access

All physical materials and reformatted media must be viewed during a scheduled appointment time within the College Archives & Special Collections office. No materials are to be circulated unless otherwise consulted with the Archivist.

Access to some audiovisual media in the collection, such as VHS, audio cassette, or phonographic record, may be temporarily unavailable pending digital reformatting.

Due to preservation concerns, such as mold or water damage, some items may be unavailable for research.

Technical Requirements for Researcher’s Access

Researchers viewing digitized, online material from this collection may access these materials from home via the World Wide Web 24/7.

Access to reformatted media in the collection, such as VHS, audio cassette, phonographic records, or computer files, must be viewed within the College Archives & Special Collections office during a scheduled appointment. Although reformatted, these items cannot be sent electronically nor can be published in our online database due to copyright restrictions. A computer and other necessary equipment will be provided during the appointment to access these materials.

Initial Acquisition

Gift, 2008-07-18
Materials were acquired from three sources: the family home and a storage unit both located in Illinois and from another repository in Iowa that deaccessioned the collection.

Appraisal

The collection consists of 28 large print boxes, 132 standard size boxes, 6 long boxes, 4 large film boxes, 1 small film box, 1 film canister, 1 small square box, and 2 plastic storage containers. There are also 15 standard size boxes that are badly mold and water damaged, that had to be disposed. There are also several boxes of negative files, and numerous framed prints; these have not yet been processed so are not part of this document.

Overall the condition of the material is fair, with some dirt or dust in most boxes, and a musty smell. The slides are primarily stored in small boxes (plastic and cardboard) or plastic sleeves (rigid or soft), while the negatives are mostly in glassine or other various kinds of envelopes.

Prints and contact sheets are mostly black and white and stored in envelopes or boxes. Some prints are much larger and mounted. It appears that many of the envelopes/folders/sheets holding negatives or slides/prints have the job number attached. Some of the printed material has been bent or spindled due to storage conditions.

The non-photographic materials are in various states. They are kept in large envelopes or standard sized file folders, sometimes labeled and identified, often not. This material is of widely varying types, from work related correspondence and contracts, to garage receipts and birthday cards. There are many, many magazines which may or may not include work by AL, as well as many sections of newspapers, clippings, and photocopied articles. In general the contents of the box does not adhere strictly to the subject listed on the outside, and there appears to be a fair amount of extraneous material not related to Lieberman's life and work.

Accessible Online Material from the Archie Lieberman Collection

While the processed portions of this collection are available for research in person, a portion of it have been digitized and made available online including:

Job Book
Archie Lieberman's Photography Job Book was created by College Archives & Special Collections staff by compiling all of Lieberman's job books into one document. The entire Lieberman Job Index shows job and client information for negatives held within the Collection. This Index provides access to Lieberman's jobs by Job Number, Job Date, Client, and the format(s) of the film.